The Tyler Family Adventures

I'm BACK!

2012-01-22T19:07:00.001-06:00

Hey hey, I'm back! These last 3 weeks were spent (trying) to fast from the Internet. For the most part, I did ok. Our church was taking part in a 21 day fast, and since I'd already drastically changed my diet for this Body Back program, I gave up something else.

So, we've been up to lots. Busy during the week and playing on the weekends. I've also started my marathon training for Boston(April 16 is the race) so needless to say I'm in bed most nights by 8:30. I'll post pictures from New Years to current shortly, but thought I'd share these family pictures that Kevin Beasley took in December. They turned out great due to the fact that it was damp and COLD. Landry Grace was a trooper in her short sleeve dress. These are pics of the actual pictures so they aren't of great quality. Disclaimer:I do not plan to reproduce them in any way, shape, or form.

Hope your January is off to a great start!

One last post!

2011-12-31T08:33:00.005-06:00

I had to get a "last post" in before the new year! We got back yesterday from our 2 night trip to Marksville. We are the delinquent parents that take our children to a casino resort. We were entertained by the alligators and indoor pool. Then we watched Alvin and the Chipmunks at the movie theatre and also let them play at Kids Quest, all without leaving the resort. They had a blast! And it's nice that we are only 2 hours away from home, so we got back pretty early and still had time to soak up the 70 degree weather!

Checking out the gators.

Playing in the pool.

And soaking up the 70 degree weather yesterday. Gotta love Louisiana! And a little girl who loves to put on bathing suits...and change clothes....she might be the death of her daddy;). His words, not mine!

Praying for a prosperous new years for you and yours! Happy New Year!!

This I have learned....

2011-12-26T10:35:00.004-06:00

....kids outsmart us every time! We had a GREAT Christmas, complete with my grandmother celebrating with us. But I have to laugh at what my kids enjoyed MOST about their presents. 1) The boxes. We had several large boxes from gifts yesterday that tickled their imaginations for hours last night! 2) A last minute idea to take our old, non-used iPhones and download them with all of my kid friendly apps....JACKPOT! I literally spent $10 each on a colored cover for the phones. LG hasn't stopped carrying hers around listening to nursery rhymes on it. Nonetheless, a Merry Christmas was had by all.

Leaving brownies out for Santa. I forgot to make the cookies. Luckily we had some brownies sent by Aunt Lou to suffice!

The coveted i-Phone project. I do have a lot of educational apps that I got through school that are downloaded onto all our phones. If you're interested, let me know. LG's current favorite is the Easy Bake Oven app. Unfortunately, it's not educational.

Jake discovering all the new apps!

Family shot. Don't we all look jolly!

Taking time to celebrate Jesus' birth. We didn't do this before presents. Opps!

After the cake we got dressed and headed to church.

When we got home, Daddy cooked steak and shrimp and Matt's family celebrated with us. My parents came over as well.

Uncle Brian(my brother) got Jake a Tebow jersey. We love Tim Tebow!

TaDah!!! Playing with BOXES!

My grandmother and GiGi opening up presents.

Grrr....I forgot to take pictures of everyone else there, but it was a great day. Hope each of you had a BLESSED Christmas!

Santa comes to GiGi's!

2011-12-24T13:01:00.006-06:00

We had Christmas at GiGi's in Bossier last night. The kids always have fun with their cousins, Kyleigh and Kaleb. We now have a new cousin by marriage as well this year, Emma. She is the same age as Landry Grace. GiGi surprised the kids by having Santa stop by and give each child a gift. I thought LG would be scared, but she warmed up rather quickly to him! Merry Christmas!

Landry Grace, Kyleigh, and Emma playing Dora the Explorer

Landry Grace playing with Emma

All the cousins together

Santa arrives........

My picture with all the cousins came out blurry, so I was left with this one. Last night LG asked for a stroller and she'd gotten one from my mom earlier in the day....who knows what she wants:)! Jake is still asking for a robot.

Family pic

And then with their beloved GiGi!

Merry Christmas!

December Update

2011-12-22T09:55:00.005-06:00

Opps! December is almost over and I have failed to update. We've been super busy with parties and celebrations. Lately, I have neglected to bring my camera with me to these functions. But in case you're in doubt:), we've had plenty going on.

We celebrated 8 years on December 13. I love looking at old photos to see how much we've changed! This was taken after we'd been married for 8 months. It's been a fun ride and I'm looking forward to many more years with Matt. He is such a blessing to our family.

On December 15, Jake turned 5!! This was our Christmas card picture from 4 years ago. Jake had just turned 1 and Landry Grace was about 7 days old. He had to endure a lot for a 1 year old, and Jake is a trooper in so many ways! We love him so much! We celebrated his birthday with cupcakes at school. I didn't bring my camera, but he thought they were the coolest cupcakes ever!

Last weekend we headed to Jonesboro to see the lights. Santa was there for us to meet. My kid's Christmas lists change everyday, so who knows what Santa will bring. I tell you this, we will be celebrating Jesus' birthday before we open gifts. Most important things first.

Landry Grace loved singing in Daddy's lap at her school program.

We got out of school on Tuesday for the holidays and I let the kids bake reindeer cookies in celebration. Jake was so excited!

Katie had us and the Cauley kiddos over yesterday for our annual Christmas play date. They loved making snowman apples and ice cream cone Christmas trees.

And accidents happen:(. Landry Grace ran into a corner of some sort and ended up with a hole in the corner of her eyebrow. Disclaimer: Dr. Sanders suggested I take a picture to send to Matt since he was working out of town yesterday. So I sent him this picture.

And LG was SUCH a trooper. She cried a little but after 4 stitches was good to go. After a nap yesterday, she woke up her "old self"!

And I had to end on a happy note! I love getting Christmas cards in the the mail! Our collection grows everyday. Thanks for sending them, as we love getting updates during this time of year!
May your family have a wonderful Christmas and remember that it all started with the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!!!

Landry Grace turns 4!

2011-12-11T19:30:00.006-06:00

Our baby turned 4 this weekend. Wasn't it just yesterday that I went into the hospital to give birth to her? She was so little (5 lbs 13 oz)for full term! To this day she is still on the small side, but anyone who knows Landry Grace will say that she makes up for her small frame with her large personality. We truly love her to the moon and back. She is our "life of the party", sweet and sassy yet super sensitive, lover of all things princess, and admirer of her big brother. Our life is sweeter because of her. Thank you Lord for blessing us with Landry Grace.

We began the morning with DONUTS! She thought it was so fun to be sung to. And no, she doesn't normally sleep in a bow. Just had to clarify that:)!

The invite to her birthday party. This party turned out to be one of my favorites! We had to do NOTHING for the party but show up. Fantastic!!! Kacee's Sugar and Spice did it all.

Birthday girl is 4!

Typical of their relationship. I was trying to get a cute pic but Jake was not into it so LG took the situation into her own hands. Love these 2 more than life itself.

Kacee and her staff always make great cakes!

Family shot

When the guests arrived, we gave them an apron with their name on it. Found these on Etsy for a super reasonable price and thought they turned out cute!

What a cute group! LG with her girlfriends.

The table was set up with gingerbread houses already put together. They all had items at their "station" to decorate with. Everyone seemed to really enjoy making their houses fancy.

Mandy and Grant drove over from Monroe. Landry Grace thought this was the best part of the party, second to opening gifts. She calls Grant her "boyfriend". I think it may have embarrassed him a little!

Decorating and talking

Opening presents.

Landry Grace made sure her big brother was close by to help her blow out the candles. It took a group effort since they were taller than normal.

Even Daddy got in on the action and enjoyed some decorating!

Landry and her schoolmate, Camille

At home they got to check out their houses again. I let them eat off of them and they thought that was so much fun.

What a fun weekend! Too often I think we can all get caught up in day to day life and not appreciate the small things. This weekend was just a reminder of the blessings of family and friends. I don't deserve them, and my cup truly runneth over. Happy Birthday Landry Grace!!

'Tis the Season!

2011-12-09T19:26:00.004-06:00

For BIRTHDAYS! Our family celebrated the first of three during the month of December on Wednesday when Daddy turned 35. Jake and Landry Grace had fun picking out a snowman cake at Wal-Mart and singing him the birthday song. I may not say it often enough, but Matt is such a wonderful daddy. His babies adore him and so do I.

And Thursday, LG took Mickey Mouse cookies to school in honor of her 4th birthday, which is actually tomorrow, December 10th. She was so excited to see these cookies when she woke up that morning.

Thanks to Pinterest, I made these!

And what's Christmas without your hometown Christmas parade? We celebrated with friends last night and had lots of fun catching candy and other goodies. I love love love my babies at this age. They are loving Christmas together and feed off each other's energy!

The crew before we headed out to catch the parade.

Holly, Katie, and me

And we were doing fantastic until LG caught a glimpse of Frosty during the parade. He was in a costume and walked right past her. God love her.....!

Family photo op. Needless to say we don't pass many of these up. Thankful that we do lots as a family.

And today we took professional family pictures. Funny story: I ordered Jake a sweater off the Internet TWO weeks ago and it was supposed to get here today. No sweat, it'll get here. Well, it did not get here. At 2:00 I was at school needing to get some errands run afterwards for our 3:30 photo shoot...and there there was NO sweater. My wonderful co-worker Sharon said she'd look around town for Jake something to wear(thank God for great friends). She tried a couple of places and found this sweater at Goodwill. It worked out perfect! The weather was a little cool but LG was a trooper in her short sleeves. Can't wait to see them!

And since she did so great, we let her open up her birthday present early:). If your little girl or boy loves dressing up, check out Little Dress Up Shop. These costumes are great because they don't itch. Wish I'd ordered the larger size as they are a little small. But it's not stopping her!

Tomorrow we will be celebrating with a PARTY! And since Landry Grace seems to be the life of the party, I know she will love soaking up the attention. I love my sweet little girl.

The Alluvian

2011-12-05T20:26:00.008-06:00

We decided last Wednesday to take an anniversary trip to The Alluvian in Greenwood, MS. Early on, I was supposed to run in the Dallas White Rock marathon last weekend, but I've been having some plantar fasciatis issues so that run was nixed. We are celebrating 8 years on December 13 and decided to take advantage of the open weekend. Plus our parents graciously agreed to keep the kiddos, that was a plus:)! So the Allivian is a small hotel that features the Viking Cooking School across the street. The owner of the hotel is from Greenwood and renovated and reopened it in 2003. From what we saw, this guy pretty much owns the whole town, although there isn't much to look at. If you go, you'll understand what I mean!

The Alluvian

We got to the hotel around noon on Saturday, but check-in wasn't until 3. We parked the car and didn't get back in it until we left on Sunday afternoon. Everything you need is within walking distance from the hotel. I loved talking to the front desk clerk about The Help since it was filmed in Greenwood. She talked about how nice Bryce Dallas Howard was(who played the bully Hilly Holbrook) and some of the other characters. They normally have tours on Saturday but the manager was out of town, so there were no tours that day:(. I plan to take my mom back to do the Help tour of Greenwood and then they have the Help dinner at the cooking school across the street where many of Minnie's specialties are featured. If you haven't read this book, DO SO!

So we shopped around Greenwood and ate lunch at the Delta Bistro. Very good! The town has several little shops that were fun to look at plus a very cool 2-story book store. Dinner started at 5 and lasted until 8. You cooked the entire meal and we had a fun group that included some LSU fans. This worked out great as we watched the SEC championship game while we cooked.

Getting ready to cook a rack of lamb, crab martinis, roasted vegetables, green beans and tiramisu

This was some of our group. It was 10 people total and the instructor, Mary Helen, was great.

Matt and our new friend Molly cooking a sauce that we put into the tiramisu

Sweet couple from Little Rock, Rob and Molly. They were celebrating 5 years and have 2 young sons.

The finished product. This was a lot of fun!

The next morning, Matt surprised me with a couple's massage at the Alluvian Spa. It was fantastic and well worth it. Below is a picture of the town. It is pretty bare other than the hotel and a few shops. There wasn't a whole lot to do but I must say this was my FAVE anniversary trip yet. This would also be perfect for a girls trip!
And I really thought about not posting this next picture because I didn't want it to look as though I was boasting. Then again, this is my blog:), so why not. Matt totally surprised me with diamond earrings on Friday night. We aren't huge gift exchangers and I'm not one to ever expect diamonds(or gifts for that matter). This was beyond thoughtful! I am blessed to be his sidekick in life. He always keeps me laughing. The last 8 years have been filled with peaks and valleys, but we all have trials. They make us who we are today. God knew long ago who was perfect for me and our family is so blessed to have him. I love you, Matt!

Hope you enjoyed this post. Have a great week!

'Tis the Season!

2011-12-04T19:05:00.005-06:00

We've spent the past week decorating the house for CHRISTmas! Each year gets a little more exciting as we watch the children grow to understand the true meaning of the season. This year our little helpers decorated the tree...a little bit....and loved the finished product.

When we were at Disney, we got them an ornament to put on the tree. You'd have thought Christmas had come early when I pulled these out of their boxes!

And Friday night Jake had a program to sing at in downtown Ruston. The entire Lincoln Parish Early Childhood Center sang 5 songs and Jake really enjoyed his time in the spotlight! Below are his teachers, Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Brown. We love them!

Jake was dancing freestyle during "Feliz Navidad". We, of course, thought it was the cutest!

I believe this was "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"

And I love getting ideas off Pinterest for things to do with Podie! This was our kids' favorite place to find him this week! Playing HiHoCherry-O with his pals.

We went to the Alluvian this weekend and I'm hoping to post soon about it. We had A LOT of fun!

Who Do You Stand For?

2011-11-29T18:39:00.001-06:00

I find this so incredibly awesome. What a testament!

Week in Review

2011-11-26T14:45:00.001-06:00

To sum up our Thanksgiving week:

We hung out in Bossier, took long naps, helped pass out 465 Tyler cajun fried turkeys that Matt cooked, had Thanksgiving Day dinner at my parents with them, my grandmother, brother Darrell and sister in law Stephanie, went back to Bossier, shopped Thursday night with a bunch of CRAZY people, Matt got last minute invite to LSU game so he shopped late then got up super early to head to Baton Rouge, put up Christmas decorations, and now we are waiting for Daddy to come back home. What a fun week we've had! So thankful for blessings of family during this time and always.

Eating ice cream(per Gi Gi) at 10 am while " helping" Daddy with the turkeys.

Napping on Thanksgiving day

Playing with Bailey Jack at Sundown, our favorite eatery in Ruston. It's always fun to see people there, especially those who are in from out of town during holidays.

We ate at the Mohawk in Monroe last night, another favorite. We're always eating, aren't we:/!!!!

And good gracious I love seeing Christmas through the eyes of children! The kiddos were SO excited that Podie made it back from the North Pole this year. Silly elf was reading all of their books this morning:).

Hope your Thanksgiving was filled with reasons to be thankful. Thank you Lord for your bountiful blessings upon our family. Have a great weekend!!

Jake's Birthday Party

2011-11-21T16:06:00.006-06:00

We had Jake's 5th birthday at Papa Simpson's Farm in Arcadia yesterday. We lucked out with warm weather and had a SUPER great time! We'd been to the farm several times but this was our first birthday party there. Can't say enough about how good it was! A special thank you to my mom who took pictures of the entire party. Thank you, Mom!

The invite

Even Daddy dressed up for our cowboy theme:)!

My sweet man riding the trailer down to the farm

The kids got to hold chicks, goats, feed calves, milk a cow, feed cows and sheep, ride ponies, feed pigs, chase goats, etc. You'd rather not see all those pictures so I narrowed them down to a few.

Feeding the calves

Picking pumpkins out of the pumpkin patch

Landry Grace always with an accessory in her hand.....

Riding the cow train!

Digging for prizes in the corn dig

And Pinterest has me getting creative!

Used slim jims for cow tails, chex mix for chicken feed, got haystacks recipe off internet, and then there were pigs in a blanket

Used oatmeal cream pies and starcrunches for cow patties

Party Table

Found these cute boot cups on Birthday Express for the party favors

Blowing out his candles

What a fun party! Wish I could be longer and tell you what Jake means to our family. He is such a blessing to us all. But in the meantime he is READY for me to take him to the movies! SO I'm off. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Landry Grace's turn

2011-11-18T19:30:00.006-06:00

I had to follow up my last post with one about Baby Girl. Landry Grace loves being in the spotlight, just like any 3 year old would. On Thursday she was in her element as her Montessori class sang songs and feasted on Thanksgiving food. She did a great job and loved every minute of us being there!

Singing away.....

With Big D and Big Mama

Our beloved Ms. Cindy

And Ms. April, her teacher

Today we had the day off from school as the local high school football team is playing in Baton Rouge. Due to buses being used and lack of enough substitutes, we got out a day early for Thanksgiving break. Yay!!! When I told mom about having Friday off, she mentioned taking Landry Grace to the Glenwood Village Tearoom in Shreveport(Mom had gotten a coupon off of Groupon so check that out as well) for lunch and tea. Let me just say that Landry Grace LOVED this! Absolutely loved it!! I'd highly recommend this to anyone wanting to do something a little different with your daughter or mom. They strongly suggest having reservations.

With her own princess tea cup and pillow(our waitress was great and played this up a bit)

This is first time I can really tell LG looks a lot like me!

She had her own teapot with Sprite and carefully drank all of it! Love her concentration in this picture. This was such a fun outing.

And since Mandy was working in Shreveport today, she joined us as well.

We are having Jake's birthday party( a few weeks early) Sunday since it's outdoors and we are hoping for warmer weather than the 26 degree weather we had 2 years ago for his and LG's outdoor party! This morning it was 34 degrees...saying some prayers but know it'll be FINE! Have a wonderfully blessed weekend!

All About Jake!

2011-11-16T19:58:00.006-06:00

This post is all about my (almost) 5 year old; can't believe I just typed that!!! Didn't we bring him home from the hospital last year just before Christmas? He'd spent 8 days in the NICU(those were the longest days of my life) and now we are getting ready to celebrate 5 years.....OK, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Matt and I spent last weekend in Oxford watching the Tech football team beat Ole Miss. True, they may be having a down year, but a win is a WIN! Especially against an SEC opponent. We had a great time as my brother flew in from Denver and his girlfriend, Mandy, was with us all weekend as well.

Jake stayed with my parents on Friday(LG was with GiGi) and they took him to another swim meet. I wish I could say that the picture below was of him discussing strategy with Big D, but he would not swim that day. Needless to say, he is a little young for the competition level at this point. We aren't going to try any more swim meets for a while. He enjoys practice and we'll keep that up in the meantime! I love that my parents and GiGi are so involved(and able to be) with my children. It's not that way for many as distance separates a lot of families from grandparents. We count our blessings daily with the help we receive from them. We couldn't do much without you!

Last night Jake had a belt test in karate. He is truly enjoying this sport and does pretty well for his age.
With his certificate and white belt with black stripe. He is so observant....in the car on the way home he could tell me the next three colors of belts and the order they were earned.
And today was Jake's Thanksgiving lunch at school. Originally, Jake had requested his Big Mama and Big D to come. My dad had to back out for a game of golf and I stepped in. Jake was a little disappointed! What can I say?
We have been more than pleased with Jake's pre-K center. He has thrived and made some great friends in the meantime. His teachers have commented on the fact that Jake is a leader in the class and on the playground. We are so proud of him and thank God for loaning him to us:)! So many reasons to be thankful during this season.
Landry Grace's feast is tomorrow. It could be interesting! Loving this age and all the laughter that comes with it. May your Thanksgiving feasts be filled with blessings and chuckles!

11.11.11

2011-11-11T09:23:00.000-06:00

Today we honor those who have unselfishly given up their time to serve our country. My grandfather, dad, and 2 uncles are also included in this group. Thank you for protecting our freedom. The time, dedication, and sacrifice you make for our country is truly appreciated. God bless our troops!

And how often is it that you celebrate a birthday on 11.11.11? Plus add those numbers together to get my age....pretty cool! My mom posted this picture from my 4th birthday. She had my preschool class over to decorate a birthday cake. Funny we are doing the same kind of party for Landry Grace's 4th in a few weeks. Gotta also love that she sucks the same 2 fingers as I did.
And Happy Birthday to my college roommate and sorority sister, Dani. Have a great weekend!!

Just Busy

2011-11-06T16:18:00.004-06:00

Can't we all relate to the fact that life is JUST BUSY right now? And with the holidays just around the corner, there is no slowing down in sight. I had a friend ask me what we were getting the kids for Christmas. Really, we have hardly thought about Christmas and are just taking it one day at a time. So instead of worrying about the future, I'll share with you some of what we've been up to! These photos are once again out of order, but you can enjoy them just the same.

We took the kids to the state fair again this year and they had lots of fun. The weather was perfect and Daddy won them some stuffed animals, which I am totally ready to get rid of. Please let me know if I have any takers...please:). The 4-H section at the fair had some great agriculture lessons so that was fun to partake in. Plus we were able to meet Elsie, the Borden cow. It was a fun trip!

At the fair and ready to ride some rides!

Happiness is!!

One of our babysitters, Miss Maya, came to deliver a "happy" for LG and J on Friday. She also happens to be one of my running partners. She is a senior at RHS and runs cross country/track. Maya is such a great role model for teenagers today. So sweet of her to come by and the kiddos love her!

I thought it'd be a great idea to have a girls' day yesterday to get some errands ran for Jake's upcoming birthday party. Well, this was about the only time she was happy during the trip. LG is not a fan of shopping!

At some friend's house last night, I caught Jake camped out by their dog. Matt knows it's only a matter of time before we get Jake his own, but certainly not this year.

Out of order.....again at the fair.

Digging up vegetables that grow in the ground at the 4-H exhibit. 1 out of 2 looking at the camera ain't bad! :)

And this is a pretty typical look at our life in pictures. One will always be upset about something! Jake was telling me that he was trying his best to smile and LG thought she would add her touch of personality to the picture.

That's all folks!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:11:00.005-05:00

What a FUN Halloween! We decided to go low-key and trick or treat in our own neighborhood with our family(my mom included). I must say this year was the most fun yet, but I'm not sure who had more fun. The kids getting their candy or us laughing at their speed to the doors and shrills over their loot. It was also nice saying hello to neighbors we don't see very often. And of course this brings back memories of how it was before all the carnivals and hayrides, etc.

Jake and Landry Grace before church on Sunday.

I'm not a creative/crafty mom at ALL, so I had to document my easy cookie craft for Jake's party at school. Apparently this was on Pinterest, but I just saw these in the hall at school on Friday and copied the idea. I thought they turned out cute.

My parents with Jake the pirate and Landry Grace "Little Red Riding Hood"

And who wouldn't like to ride in style while trick or treating!

Oh how I wish this had been videoed coming from this house! They were screaming about the goody bag they'd received! LG especially was going hysterical! It was quite hilarious.

Miss Little Red Riding Hood

Glad we stopped for a quick picture. Definitely going to make a tradition of doing it "the old fashioned way" from here on out. So much fun!!

Happy Halloween Y'all!

Peace Out

2011-10-31T11:16:00.000-05:00

Not sure if this video will send from my phone, but I have to try. We got so tickled looking back at this. I was filming during Jake's warm-up(who needs a warm-up at 4 yrs old!) and he was giving me peace signs. He's so silly!

Jake's First Swim Meet

2011-10-29T13:07:00.000-05:00

We learned a lot of do's and don'ts at the swim meet today. First and foremost, dress cool as it's super warm in an indoor pool. Jake false started his first race and was too upset to finish it. At this age, I want to teach him the importance of doing your best, but we also realize he's 4. Overall, I think he had fun. He swam 4 events and the relay was probably his favorite event. Jake might tell you that the best part of the day was getting to pick where we ate. McDonald's was his choice so we obliged! More than anything, swimming is great exercise and he enjoys doing it!

Our Weekend

2011-10-26T18:28:00.005-05:00

What a great weekend it was! We started out Friday by having Matt's co-workers and their families over for dinner. He works with 2 really sweet partners. One of them has a 2 year old, Parker,whom LG had fun with. She thought it was the greatest thing feeding him. Other than this picture, we just enjoyed each other's company and had a good time watching the kids wear themselves out. Wish I could say mine slept late on Saturday...but that didn't happen!

Saturday morning we headed out to vote. Since our precinct is close to our house, it made sense to hop in the tractor and go. Later that day we joined our friend Bailey Jack at Lincoln Parish Park to play at the new Legacy Park playground. Bailey Jack is a 3 year old who has Downs Syndrome. His (awesome) mom, Jana, has worked for 2+ years on getting the funds together ($350, 000) to open a playground where children with special needs can join their peers and play together. The soft opening was Saturday afternoon and to say the park is fantastic is an understatement. I personally am so proud to be a part of such a wonderful community who worked together to make this park a reality. Hate that I didn't bring my camera to the event. Saturday night we got together with our Sunday school class for dinner while the kiddos hung out at the church. I don't like being the one lugging around a big camera, so I opted to once again leave it at home:).
Sunday afternoon we headed over to Lander's house for his 5th birthday party. Everyone/thing was decked out in camo.

Below is Landry Grace with Bailey Jack. She absolutely loves him, but BJ is not so sure of LG! I had to talk with her after the party about not being so rough with him. Her response, " But Mom, everyone LOVES Bailey Jack! and he ONLY loves me!" What could I say, short of laughing? I pray she always has such a loving heart for everyone.

Jake and the birthday boy

Peyton, Jake, Lander, and Talan

Monday night I headed to Natchitoches with some co-workers for a night of fun and a workshop the next day. How often I forget what a neat place it is. Hannah, promise I'll call you next time:)! We had a lot of fun and got some great information on autism spectrum disorders.
Last, but NOT least, is the LION KING! I got this e-mail from Disney yesterday and wanted to pass it along. I've seen this show twice and it is hands down my favorite Broadway production. Not all of the info is included, so here is the rest. The show is running from March 14-April 15. You can go to Ticketmaster for the tickets. I'm thinking we are definitely doing this since our spring break falls during the month of April. Wanted to share in case you are interested!
And Meryl, here is the link to Disney's Photopass:)!

More Disney

2011-10-23T13:50:00.003-05:00

Before we went to Disney, I pre-purchased a photopass CD. By doing this, I saved $$ and was guaranteed some decent family pictures. We took about 100 pictures on the CD but I narrowed it down to a few to show on the blog. One of these I'll use for Christmas pictures and the rest are just for fun! I definitely recommend doing this.

Meeting Cinderella for the first time. We had just arrived at WDW and went to get pictures with the princesses first. She was in awe!

With Aurora(AKA Sleeping Beauty)

You can see LG's anguish on night 1; Mickey and Minnie have over 150 different outfits. Thought that was a cool tidbit of info.

My favorite picture from the whole trip!

They are currently working on Cinderella's Castle, so it's hard to get a good daytime picture without a huge crane in it. I cropped this one.

If you ask the photographer, they'll put Tinkerbell in the picture. Just another fun thing, but you have to ask for it!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Waited for an hour to see Jessie and Woody...wouldn't have done it for any other character. This was our last night and LG had just woken up from her nap. Glad we got to meet them. I also didn't think mine would get into the autograph book, but Matt bought them one while we were there and they LOVED it!

They haven't stopped talking about Disney since we came home. Definitely glad we were able to go back.

Wedding Weekend

2011-10-22T08:48:00.006-05:00

I'm a little late on this post, but better late than never! We had a really great weekend in Rockwall(just north of Dallas) celebrating with my brother. Lots of family came in from all over, many that we haven't seen in several years. I think most families seem normal until you get to know them;), and that's definitely the case with mine. We have lots of different personalities in our group! Let me just say that I laughed more last weekend than I have in a year. Wish that the weekend could have lasted a little longer, but all good things should come to an end.

On Friday, my parents had a small get together for family and friends. We are so thankful that after 42 years, Darrell waited until he found the right girl. He was so emotional all weekend! After the party on Friday, we headed back to the hotel and gave Stephanie a lingerie shower by the pool where she got some fun things. We hung out with friends and cousins until late in the evening before calling it a night.

Saturday started out early with a golf tournament for my brother and his friends. All of the family played in it as well. I think it's safe to say they(all 48 of them!) had a good time. While they guys were golfing, my aunts hosted a luncheon at a nearby restaurant. All of our events and where we stayed were right on the harbor in Rockwall. The area is a really pretty place and the weather was great. Darrell and Stephanie picked a beautiful place for their wedding.

The wedding was at 5 on a small boat that could only fit 49 people. I thought it might be pretty crowded but it wasn't at all. Darrell and Stephanie were married while we sailed. I might add that during that ceremony I gained a new niece, Madison, 10, who we all adore. My children have met her once and think she's the coolest:)! We are so blessed to have gained not 1, but 2 family members through this new marriage. A reception with more friends was held at a cousin's house. The pictures are out of order but I'll explain as I go.

From left: my dad's twin brother Uncle David and Aunt Jeannie(Atlanta), Mom and Dad, and Daddy's older brother Uncle Jerry and Aunt Liz(Birmingham)

Darrell and Stephanie
My dad toasting to Darrell and his new bride after the ceremony.
This is my mom's side of the family. I am SO glad they were all there!!!
My sweet brother Brian and his toast on the boat.
My mom and her sisters, Jody and Renee, with my grandmother, Big. She looks great to be 85!
Love this picture!! Stole it from sweet Suzy(great meeting you!!!)
Me and mom on the boat(another stolen picture!)
My entire family. It's been a while since we got everybody together; 8 years to be exact. Oh, and Matt was coughing. He looks mad!
Another of the kids, minus Darrell. he was off talking.
I accidentally cut the cake without a picture, opps! The cake was a hit!
At the luncheon on Saturday.
Again with my Aunts Jeannie and Liz
Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Big News!!

2011-10-13T21:54:00.000-05:00

My oldest brother, Darrell, is tying the knot this weekend for the first time! He is marrying the sweetest girl, Stephanie, and I think it's safe to say we(my family)are thrilled for them! They are getting married on Lake Rockwall aboard a boat. Looking forward to a weekend of celebration. Pictures to follow.

Pumpkin Patch Picture

2011-10-11T20:24:00.003-05:00

Zelda Garcia took Jake and Landry Grace's pictures last week and I received the CD today. Of all the pictures, this one turned out the cutest! And really, I only needed 1 really good one. I can remember the days of blood, sweat, and tears to try and get one decent picture...usually to no avail. Now they are at the age where I walk away and let the photographer do all the work. Miracles occur everyday. Some way bigger than others. This little miracle has been a long time coming.

Red River Revel

2011-10-08T18:37:00.006-05:00

Since Matt had to work in the hayfields today, I asked Mom to go with us to the Red River Revel in Shreveport. It's an arts and music festival and there are always lots of activities for the kids. Today was fun but it was super hot and I decided not to bring the stroller. I was trying to teach Landry Grace a lesson about walking. We had lots of issues at Disney World with her wanting to be carried everywhere....that's another story for another day! She did OK but it was still hot(did I already mention that?).

They loved the Brookshire's grocery store where they got to shop for things on their list and then check out with a "cashier". Both of them did pretty good trying to locate the items. LG was pretty serious when it came to checking out her groceries. Man, I'm going to miss these days!

Jake loved the sand art. This was a great activity!
And if I never ever ever get another good picture again, this one will be worth it. They were headed to another activity when Jake took her hand to explain what they were going to do. Moments like this don't happen often. What a great reminder of God's unconditional love for us through the actions of my children.
And you can't go to the Revel without a big ol' turkey leg(said with my most southern drawl). We were all about the food but good gosh it was pricey! Oh..and you can't forget Miss Priss in the background sucking those fingers! So hoping I can come up with a strategy to make her quit soon. :(
After this we rode the ferris wheel and headed home. On the way to the car we passed SciPort(a children's science and experiment museum) and they had some activities set out. I looked over at one point and Jake was in total concentration mode. He has always loved some pipe cleaners. The ideas are endless!
Happy Saturday!

Where Dreams Come True!

2011-10-05T21:40:00.005-05:00

Disney World Video

I put together the pictures from our WDW vacation on YouTube(click on link above to view). I accidentally put 2012 in the title of the slideshow and didn't catch it...oops! There are 160ish pictures that I trimmed from 500+ that I took. What can I say, I tried to narrow them down! We had a great time. The weather was still very warm until Saturday and Sunday. Crowds were great until the weekend as well. I want to be as detailed but I'm also tired, so here is my short version of what we did and some "must-do's". Of course I'll leave something out but maybe not!

We got an earlier flight on Tuesday(September 27) than originally planned, putting us in Orlando at 10:55am. We stayed at the Port Orleans-French Quarter and they let us check in as soon as we arrived. We all took naps and headed to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night. Kids had a good time trick or treating at the Magic Kingdom but LG was petrified by the characters until day 3. Turning point came at Hollywood Studios when she saw Phineas and Ferb(one of their fav morning cartoons). Hilarious! We also were able to ride some rides that night.

Wednesday: Went to breakfast EARLY at O'Hana and were at the MK by 8:45 for "rope drop" aka when the park opens. You have to do this! Makes the most out of your day. Back to resort by 2:00 for naps. Had 5:40 dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Druscilla(Step-mother and step-sisters). Loved this one!!!!! Very entertaining experience. Didn't leave hotel in time enough to be at our reservation. Opps! Took over an hour to get there with stops and transfers to the Grand Floridian. Note to self. Back to MK that night for rides. It was not busy at all on this night and we were able to walk on most of the rides. Didn't even use "Fast Past" until later in the week. It helped that Landry Grace was RIGHT AT 40 inches and could ride a lot of rides that had height requirements. This didn't come into play that much at MK but it did in the other parks. Got home that night around 10:30....no problem putting kids to bed.

Thursday: Up at 7:30 for breakfast(we chose to eat a snack at the park on this day) for Animal Kingdom. Park opened at 9 and I think we got off the bus around 8:40. They were already letting people in by the time we got to the gate. To me, this is a park you can visit once and get it done in a half day. We went to the safari ride first and it's always cool. We then hit some walking trails and spotted lots of animals before heading to Expedition Everest where Jake took a ride on his third roller coaster ride of the trip. Last we hit the 3-D attraction "It's Tough to be a Bug". Um, NO GO if your kids are scared easily. LG was ready to G-O on this one. We left AK around 1:30ish.
Home for naps and back at Hollywood Studios for that evening. We did 50's Primetime for dinner and it was great! The whole cafe is decked out in 50's(of course) style and the waiters treat you like "family". We kinda had a dud but the kids wouldn't have caught on anyway. Food was really good. Rode the #1 attraction Toy Story Mania. Totally worth the 35 minute wait(one of the longest waits on the entire trip...not bad!). Saw Phineas and Ferb. Rode Tower of Terror....scared the kids but didn't scar them for life;) and did a few more things.

Friday: Up early again(7:30) for a trip to Epcot. We REALLY enjoyed this day because of all the characters we got to see with little to no wait in line for autographs. Highly recommend it! Last time we went, we didn't feel like we had time to do Epcot bc there wasn't much for the kids. We were wrong(but it helped that LG was 40 inches). Soaring is the #1 ride there...awesome! We rode this one twice and did get fast passes(which allows you to come back at a certain time and go to the front of the line with little wait time). You are in a simulator hand gliding over the state of California. So cool! Lots to do for the kiddos. Don't forget to try out Test track. We stayed there until 3 that day and then went back to the resort. Since our dinner reservation wasn't until 8 that night, we had time to take advantage of the resort pool. The kids had been dying to swim so it worked out great. We did O'Hana a the Polynesian for dinner and it was REALLY good food. Another that I recommend. We also were able to catch the fireworks at 9:30 from our dinner table. That was fun! Got to bed late again. We never made it to bed before 10 the entire trip, so we slept in until 8:18 ish the next morning.

Saturday: Got to Hollywood Studios around 9:30 and went directly for fast passes at Toy Story Mania. They(fp's) go quickly. We did a lot at HS and I love this park! One of my favorites was the Beauty and the Beast show. Great! Lots to do here. Left at 4 ish and went back to resort for late naps. We decided to hit the MK that night since they were open until midnight. Saturday was a celebration for Disney's 40th year in business. It was C-R-O-W-D-E-D. Every line was long but we made due. We hadn't ridden the tea cups or race cars at that point so we made sure to do it that night. It's a Small World ride was ridden every chance we went to the MK and Peter Pan's Flight was my kids' favorite. Didn't get to bed until after midnight.

Sunday: LAST DAY! Slept until 9:30. Matt took Jake fishing(he was dying to go and since we were there for 5.5 days we had time to fit it in...that was nice) and then rented a two-person bike that we all rode around the neighboring resort. Then went back to room to go back to MK for the afternoon. We ended our trip with dinner at Cinderella's Castle. LG fell asleep in the stroller around 4(dinner was at 6) and when she woke up, it wasn't pretty. It took her a good hour to get back to "normal" and we missed a photo op with Cinderella at the beginning of dinner. There's always next time.

Left on Monday.

Wish I could elaborate more but I'm exhausted. Please excuse any errors. I'm spell checking and going to bed. I'll continue soon!

Update from Disney

2011-10-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

We are 5 days into our vacation and it's been everything we could imagine. There is no place on Earth like WDW!! The kids have been going strong but we always take midday breaks at our resort for naps and recharging. Tonight the Magic Kingdom is open until midnight so we plan to stay out late and have some fun. Our last full day is tomorrow. We have had plenty of time to get everything done that we wanted to. I'll add more details later. Hope y'all are enjoying this cooler weather!

We're Going to DW!

2011-09-26T17:46:00.000-05:00

The doorbell rang shortly after the kids got home. Mickey and Minnie greeted them with this letter. We have the video but the cutest comments came after the news sunk in. LG immediately put on her Ariel costume and has NO plans of taking it off So precious! They are thrilled!!!!!

Meet Pirate Jake

2011-09-25T14:05:00.000-05:00

This little guy has absolutely NO idea that in less than 48 hours he'll be in a real pirate costume at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World!! I'm sorry, I cannot contain my excitement:)!!

Yay for Fall!

2011-09-24T19:11:00.001-05:00

What a great weekend it's been. The weather helps out greatly and it's nice to have cooler temps again. Last night we took the kids to see Dolphin Tale at the movies. It's a true story but that's all I knew. Worth seeing...excellent! Yes, I know it's PG but I didn't find anything inappropriate. This morning we went to Landon and Kennedy's pirate and mermaid party. Katie did an AWESOME job! I didn't bring my camera so I took these off Facebook. My kids are still in pirate mode from this morning. We've already had 2 more treasure hunts. Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Bring On Fall!

2011-09-20T18:20:00.003-05:00

This weekend was cool enough to inspire me to get into my flower beds. I got rid of my spring flowers and am taking a chance with mums this year. The ones pictured are going to be red, hopefully! We are showing off our Tech pride in the picture below. LG decided to pose for me since she had her uniform on. Anyone need an 18 month old cheerleader outfit? I keep telling her it's time to put it away. Someone please come and get it!

Wal-Mart had pumpkins out on Friday so we stocked up. I think it creates a festive look and minimal upkeep.
Jake was at karate during these pics and Landry Grace has now learned to drive the tractor. Watch out!
Happy Fall y'all!

Lots to Post!

2011-09-18T11:41:00.005-05:00

I try to get better at posting more often, but there just isn't enough time in the day. Another week has come and gone. Our only free evening during the week is on Thursday. So I love Thursdays! I also enjoy the kids busy schedules as they seem to enjoy being "on the go".

Last week we did some cane pole fishing at Lincoln Parish Park. Oh how we love that place! Jake has been asking to go fishing for a while, so last Sunday I loaded the kids up along with Big Mama. We actually caught about 6 fish and had a really good time out there. Thank goodness Mom was there....I just couldn't bring myself to get the fish off the hook. Geez! She also cooked the fish with Jake and he loved it, but wouldn't eat them. Go figure that Landry Grace, my picky eater, liked them.

Landry Grace also started ballet on Monday and this year says she isn't going to miss a class so that she can get the goody bag at the end of the year. I figured she wouldn't catch on to that last year, but I was wrong! Glad she has a goal:). And there are some sweet friends in her class so that makes the year even more fun.

This past week at Jake's school were spent learning the 5 senses. On Friday I joined him as they visited different classrooms to test their senses and enjoy some activities. I learned that Jake loves licorice. Ewww:)!! He has a really sweet class and has made some good friends. That's always good for a mama's heart. Another fun thing we did was to bring green cupcakes in the shape of a circle(of course cupcakes are circles as well) for snack that Friday. His class was working on circles and the color green last week. I could have made these myself but ran outta time:(. If I do this more often then baking will occur. Fun idea though.

Friday afternoon we went the Tech Bookstore to buy Tech gear for Matt. We hadn't been there since Barnes and Noble took over a year ago. I was extremely impressed. We also picked up some matching outfits for the kids since they were too cute to pass up:)! The game started out great last night but we lost by a point to the University of Houston. It was a tough loss! Landry Grace's favorite thing to do was give our seat neighbor's little girl a lot of attention. She has a fascination with babies going on right now. It's pretty cute! Jake got lost twice last night which about sent me into orbit. We've got some issues to work out there as he has got to understand not to run off. I figure it's too late to put a harness on an almost 5 year old....

And we are now into SINGLE DIGIT days until Disney! Woohoo!!! We've kept this secret for 200 days and are almost there!!!!! Right now I'm brainstorming ideas on just how to tell them. Our flight now leaves at 5:45 am(we chose this. The earlier we get there, the better!). So I'm thinking we'll tell them at dinner the night before we leave. But then will they sleep? I won't! Fun times ahead.

Boston

2011-09-14T17:15:00.010-05:00

The Boston Marathon. The most coveted marathon in the world and for many it's a lofty goal. By the grace of God I qualified for the race on my first attempt at a marathon. I've only run 3 races of 26.2 miles, but there is truly no other race that can compare. The history that comes with the Boston Marathon along with the patrons that line the path from Hopkinton and the other 12 cities that you run through en route to Boston is absolutely incredible! The volunteers, fans, runners, race officials, and Bostonians that come together on the third Monday of every April is every bit of the word: AMAZING.

With that being said, I registered for my second Boston today. Registration rules are strict and this year the BAA(Boston Athletic Association) changed all the rules since the race filled in a record 8 hours last year. At that time, it was a first come first serve basis as long as you met the qualifying standards. This years ruling is allowing those who ran fastest register first. I totally agree with that but you will always have people who complain! Monday's registration was for those who ran 20 minutes or faster than their qualifying time. Today, those that ran 10 minutes or faster were allowed to register. I fell into this category. My previous marathon time was 3:27:55 and my age group standard is 3:40:59. 5 minutes or faster get to register Friday and then if any spots are left(which I think there will be), then those persons will register on Monday. I believe that there are an estimated 25,000 spots available.

Matt is looking forward to coming with me this year. He's never been to Boston so it should be a lot of run hanging out and seeing the sites. I'm looking forward to being a part of such a great

race that's full of history and honor.

P.S. I have no idea why the format of this post went crazy on me.

This and That

2011-09-09T21:01:00.007-05:00

Really, not too much is going on right now....We are settling into our school routine and loving this weather. "Loving the weather" is an understatement but for those of you in the South, you know what I mean! We went from 85 degree mornings to 55 degree mornings. Wow! That means the evenings are pleasant and we can do more outdoor activities in the yard and neighborhood. Jake is still enjoying swimming and karate. Landry Grace starts ballet on Monday and is thrilled about it this year. Not sure if she is excited about the dancing or the lollipops they hand out when class is over. Seriously, that is the reason she gave me when I asked her if she wanted to dance or gymnastics. Silly girl. Just a couple of pictures from this week. They are out of order...

Jake hitting some golf balls in the yard with Daddy.

Today was Grandparent's Day at school so Big D came over to take Jake to school. FYI: My mom was in a bike accident 3 weeks ago and broke her collar bone. She had surgery on it yesterday and the Dr. put a plate in. Please pray that she RESTS and that her shoulder heals correctly. My mother is a GO-GETTER(yes, she even WALKED to the hospital yesterday morning......enough said), and patience for my dad. I love them both dearly.

Landry Grace got another hair cut. Ms. Amy did a great job. She was so proud that her hair looked more like mine after the cut and insisted on NOT wearing a bow to school today. Yes, I obliged!
We went over to hang out with the Halls' for a bit and I caught this cute picture of Kennedy. She is so darn cute!
Landry Grace hardly stopped long enough for a shot and I gave up on the boys. Again, we are LOVING this cooler weather!! Notice that by the end of today I just couldn't stand her hair in her face any longer. Talked her into the bow:)
And since the high school gets out much later(1 hour) than the elementary schools here, we were able to attend the RHS pep rally this afternoon. This was really good entertainment for them and ,of course, they were excited about seeing Camille there.
And their favorite cheerleader/babysitter, Chandler, performed at the pep rally, so that was definitely LG's highlight!

May you have a great weekend and enjoy your time with family.

The Latest

2011-09-02T18:40:00.001-05:00

Not too much to report here. The tropical storm/hurricane ruined my girls Labor Day trip to Orange Beach but I'm currently watching Toy Story 3 with the fam and would not want to be anywhere else. We've been busy with school and after school activities. Jake is at the age where he wants to do EVERYTHING. I'm all about it but there's got to be some limit! Above is a picture from his first swim team practice. We decided to wait another year with Landry Grace. She's just not ready for that much independence in the water. Hope you have a great weekend!

Another First

2011-08-25T18:48:00.005-05:00

What a great day! Both children went to school and came home ready to go back. Is it terrible that I wasn't emotional? Jake was so excited about this morning and I was just happy for him.

This might be my favorite picture yet. Loving the dimples!

Showing off his back pack. He chose to eat in the cafeteria today so we left the Batman lunchbox at home.

Being silly with Landry Grace

Thursdays are my days off from running, but I woke up early to make cinnamon rolls. They were a hit. Notice that Jake still has on his backpack from pictures. He was so proud of it.

Landry Grace quickly connected with friends Katherine Worthey and Camille Smith. I left her and headed to the Pre-K center.

Jake was doing great until he wasn't watching where he was going on the sidewalk and ran right into a pole:(. I think it bruised his ego more than anything else. After a minute of TLC he was ready to go in.

Walking down the hall with Daddy.

Jake has 2 teachers in his classroom: Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Cooper(plus 2 aides). I know both of them and am excited as they will be a perfect fit for Jake!

Only boys went to school today at the pre-K center and only girls will go tomorrow. Jake is already excited about going back on Monday. This does my heart good:). There have been many tears in the past during drop offs and so forth. I am glad that he is independent and ready for a fun year. It may hit me soon how fast these past 4 1/2 years have gone, but right now I am thankful for too much to be sad. So proud of my sweet Jake!

Landry Grace's First Day

2011-08-23T18:54:00.004-05:00

Landry Grace had her phase-in day at Montessori this morning. She went to school from 8:30 -11:30 and will begin full time on Thursday. It seems like yesterday we were out for the summer! Now we are beginning a new school year AND going to Disney in a month(yes, we've kept it a secret from them!).

This year was an extremely easy transition for us as Landry Grace knows her teacher and assistant. My school is 2 miles from hers, so I quickly met Matt there as he dropped her off. We took 2 pictures and she never looked back. It should hopefully be another great year.

With Ms. Cindy

With her teacher, Ms. April

Dance Moves

2011-08-21T20:06:00.000-05:00

A typical night of dancing and wrestling in the Tyler household. Landry Grace was excited as this was the video she danced to at the RHS cheer clinic a few weeks ago. You gotta watch the video in it's entirety to get the idea of what we go through daily. Never dull and oh so fun.....!

Fan Fest

2011-08-14T17:08:00.003-05:00

We went to Louisiana Tech's Media/ Fan Fest day this afternoon after church. The football players and cheerleaders were there along with various activities for them to participate. We ran into several friends so that was a lot of fun, too! I will say that although most children grow out of their fear of mascots/characters, Landry Grace has not. She is truly terrified of anything in character form. I'm really not sure how she's going to handle Disney as her fear has only grown the older she gets. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Getting her face painted.

Jake, Lander, and Peyton being goofy!

Again petting Tech the bulldog. They had a ball this afternoon!

This was the closest LG got to the dog...hoping for a cute picture:(!

LG with our sweet friend Harper.

And then they were off to discover the activities UNTIL.........

Champ came around. And then it was game over. Jake loves him. LG on the other hand...

Not so much.

And she would NOT get down the rest of our time there. Made it a little easier for a family photo op!

Hope you all have a great week. Teachers in Lincoln Parish have 4 inservice days starting tomorrow before the students come for a half day on Friday. Looking forward to a GREAT school year!

Cows!!

2011-08-13T19:02:00.000-05:00

We stopped by on our way to Aunt Lou's tonight to see the cows in Benton. Jake and LG get a cow every year on their birthday from Lou. Eventually the money made when the heffer is sold will go into their college fund. Have I told this before...sorry if so. It's a win win situation! The cows thought we'd brought food tonight so they were "up close and personal" when we drove up. They were also pretty loud, so the kids were a little nervous around them. It took them awhile to get out of the car. I forgot my camera but caught these shots on Matt's phone.

All Good Things...

2011-08-10T11:47:00.000-05:00

Must come to an end! But great things are around the corner:). My summer ends tomorrow as I have meetings starting Friday. Luckily we have arranged for childcare without problem until they start school full time. Today we are enjoying playing outside in our plastic pool. They stopped only for a quick lunch on their new picnic table.

We're ALIVE!

2011-08-03T11:02:00.004-05:00

So the month of July has come and gone. Not sure what happened, but I just didn't feel like blogging last month. Nevertheless our month was filled with camps, VBSs', birthday parties, showers, you get the idea! I even failed to take my camera with me to all events. July was fun! The kids are just growing up too fast(I say that all the time but it's true) and we just enjoyed being together during our last full month of summer.

Now we are getting geared up for the new school year. I have all of Jake's school supplies ready and we are now working on his school uniforms. He has to wear them to the pre-K center in Ruston(our parish built this new school last year and this is the second school year that it has been open) and although this makes me sad that he's a big boy now, I know he is SO excited about this new step. He's already told Landry Grace that he's riding the school bus to his new school(since when did this become cool?) but I had to break it to him that there was no bus to take him this year. He'll have to wait until kindergarten for that:)! He's also excited about eating in the cafeteria and the playground. Fun times ahead.

Here are a few activities from last month:

Art camp with Mrs. Renee. The theme was Eric Carle books and Jake chose a jaguar as his favorite character.

Landry Grace found my lipstick one night. 'Nough said.
We went over to Party Central in Bossier one evening. We'd never been there but the kids had a TON of fun!
The huge slide was a hit. I think they went down it 50+ times. No kidding.
And Jake Tyler loves him some go carts.
Before Tullie's birthday party.
Hitting the pinata. They loved this birthday party!
While everyone was getting their loot on the ground, Jake was making sure nothing more was going to fall out. I love how Claire is smiling at him. So sweet!
And Matt's cousin, Laura, is expecting her first baby in early September. We celebrated with her during a shower. She looks fantastic!
With another of Matt's cousins: Jenny. She is getting married Labor Day weekend at the beach.
That's all for now. I'll be back sooner than later this time.

New Orleans

2011-07-10T14:32:00.007-05:00

Lots of pictures. Sorry....but I just decided to get these vacation pictures posted! We packed a lot into our New Orleans visit. We spent all day at the Audubon zoo, getting there via the St. Charles street car at 11 and not leaving 'til 5ish. It was H-O-T but not crowded. I was kinda surprised since it was the Fourth of July. The kids loved everything about the zoo, but were less than impressed by the dinosaur exhibit. In fact, they were down right terrified. I got LG to take a nap in the stroller for an hour or so inside a cafe at the zoo, so that bought us some more time. They had a small water park there and we attempted to do that at the end of our visit, but there were too many people and we only stayed there for about 30 minutes. We went back to our hotel on the riverfront and Matt managed to get us a room that overlooked the river. This was great as we got to watch the firework show from our room after we went to dinner in the hotel. It worked out perfect!

The next morning we were out the door around 9 and headed to Cafe du Monde. No trip to New Orleans is complete without a trip for beignets! Both kids loved them. Then we headed to the Aquarium of the Americas and the Children's Museum. The highlight of the day were the sharks at the aquarium and then the Winn Dixie grocery store at the museum. Jake and LG thought it was the coolest thing ever that they were able to shop and then ring up their purchases at the cash register. I was impressed by the grocery store as well.

Matt was nice enough to let me go to the Orient Expressed store while we were there(LOVE) and shop their bin sale. For those of you not familiar, this is a children's clothing company based out of New Orleans. We then went back to the hotel for a late afternoon swim. The kids were running and jumping into the pool. Landry Grace jumped in at one point and turned around quickly, causing her chin to catch the deck of the pool. I immediately pulled her out because I knew it was bad. Sure enough, she had a pretty big gash under her chin. Matt got some alcohol and butterfly band aids to do the trick until we could get to a doctor. This ended our trip. We packed up and left New Orleans about 6pm on July 5th and headed north. Dr. S dirmabonded her chin the next morning.

So this was our summer vacation. We were blessed to be able to take the kids and let them do so much. Now we are focusing on finishing out the summer and getting ready for school. Jake is attending VBS at Trinity this week in the A.M. in then going to art camp at Mrs. Renee's house in the afternoon. I can see some fun activities for Landry Grace and I going on while he's away. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Cruise continued!

2011-07-09T12:19:00.006-05:00

Our cruise started on Thursday afternoon. We set sail at 4:30, sailed all day Friday, and were in Cozumel, Mexico all day Saturday. Originally, I had wanted to do a submarine excursion with the kids but we opted for a day at the beach. The price that we paid included transportation to the beach, water activities(they had a water trampoline, climbing apparatus, and boats), plus all you could eat and drink for the day. Our excursion began at 9 and we were back at the dock by 2. We had to be back on the boat by 4:30 or you were left. The water was very murky in Cozumel which was a bummer. It worked out good that we were back a little early as we hit the shops very briefly to get Jake a mask and shirt. Then we went back to the boat for a nap.

Jake dancing at the pool during our excursion.

Jake, Daddy, and GiGi at the pool with their daiquiris. This was a plus to the trip:)!
The hammock area. Landry Grace thought this was the greatest thing.
Jake and Daddy relaxing.
Then they decided to take a stroll out in the water. Normally, the water is so pretty and clear. You can see that it was not at all clear when we were there. Matt said it was very difficult pedaling the boat without a partner(Jake couldn't reach the pedals!). I took his word on it!
Landry Grace enjoying some rare beach time. They were not interested in the beach in Cozumel. We hunted sea shells for a bit, but other than that they stayed at the pool.
Just before we left. They loved the strawberry daiquiris!
On the last day of our trip there was a talent show for the kids on the ship. Landry Grace had been talking about this since Day 1 when we found out they had one. She had all her ballerina gear in tow and was ready to break out all her twirls. Jake was ready to dance as well once we found him a mask to wear in Cozumel along with a pair of maracas.

Well, I knew it wasn't a good sign when Jake wouldn't even go and sit with the contestants on the front row. But LG did, she pranced herself up to the front row and was ready for action.
The 2 little girls in front of her both sang songs. They were probably 6 and 8 years old. So then it was Landry Grace's turn. They asked her name and age which she answered on stage. Then they asked her if she was ready to dance. She told them no, that she was going to sing "Rockabye Baby" to which GiGi and I fell out laughing because this came out of nowhere. I just attributed this to the fact that the girls before her sang. So at this point she was frightened and left the stage.

But she came back at the end of the show to perform. ONLY so she could score her medal and certificate. Bless her heart, she would only sway back and forth. Everyone in the crowd(which there were only about 20 but we were on the main stage in the ship) cheered loudly for her but she wouldn't break out her dance moves. Halfway through the Taylor Swift song, she asked me if she could get her medal. We stopped shortly thereafter. I really was just proud of her for getting up on the stage and being brave. She was by far the youngest contestant:).
Getting her medal. They also gave Jake a consolation medal.
The whole gang after the talent show.
The last dinner we had on the ship. They were dressed and ready to go!
What a fun time we had on the cruise! Thank you to GiGi and Aunt Lou for a wonderful time!
We woke up at 7 Monday morning and got off the boat in New Orleans around 9. The rest of the day was spent at the Audubon zoo. Then we enjoyed the fireworks that night from our hotel room. More on that later. Have a great Saturday!

Cruise: Part 1

2011-07-07T15:39:00.009-05:00

So what did we think about the cruise? Well, it was a lot of fun, but not something that we will necessarily do again. The atmosphere wasn't the most appealing but we knew that going in. We'd all been on a cruise before with the exception of Jake and LG. The boat did have a kids club for ages 2-5 called Camp Carnival. I couldn't keep Jake out of that place for the first half day and then the next day. Landry Grace enjoyed it as well. She even signed up for the camp talent show. More on that later....

Our room consisted of a king bed and twin bed. We brought along Landry Grace's blow-up twin bed that I got from One Step Ahead last year and she sleeps great on it. The room was a perfect fit for us. Aunt Lou and GiGi shared a room down the hall. Here are the kids looking out the window after we left the port.

Jake thought it was pretty cool to wave at the barges as we headed out.
Matt and his mini me before we left to explore the ship.
One stop back to the room around 5:30 to freshen up for dinner and sweet LG falls asleep on the bed. She was absolutely exhausted from all we did that day but both kids were troopers.
We took them to kids club after dinner for about an hour and this is what they looked like when we picked them up. I was most impressed with the fact that Landry Grace stayed and didn't cry. She isn't big on new environments at all. They did give us a cell phone to use in case they needed to call us, so that was very helpful.

Each night they loved coming back to the room to see what animal towel was left on the bed. Our steward was great and left 2 animals a couple of nights. They loved the chocolate mints as well!
The next morning Jake was in a rush to play putt putt golf. Then he was in a mad dash to make it to kids club. I really can't remember what I did in the mean time, but we didn't go to the pool until the last day. They were extremely small and just not appealing at all. LG was too small to go on the water slide and Jake was afraid he was going to get stuck on the slide. Not sure why but I didn't argue.

Right when LG and I got to the course, Jake hit a hole in one!! Here is his thumbs up in celebration!
Just a picture to let you see the layout.
And my kiddos most favorite thing on the ship.....ICE CREAM. Yes, 24 hours a day, ice cream was available. I'd be lying if I told you that this picture wasn't taken at 9am. They loved this part!
And later on that day the kids club had a "Build a Bear" workshop that we could participate in for an additional fee(of course). I didn't realize that you had to manually stuff each animal along with dressing it. So after waiting in line for a while and then working on each animal, we were ready to go.
Jake with his pirate lion in the kids club room.
So I thought this was enough pictures for one post. I'll add more later!

Beach Vacation

2011-07-06T15:36:00.005-05:00

We made it back from our vacation around midnight last night. It was a lot of fun, but of course there is no place like home!! Here are some pictures from the beach that I took on my camera. I took a total of 544 pictures so trying to narrow them down was tough:)! I don't like the slide show video from slide.com and am not sure how to load one on my Mac. I'm sure there's a way, just haven't figured it out yet. Share some info if you have any!!

We stayed 4 nights at the beach, which in years past has been PLENTY! This year I think we all felt like our time ran out way too soon. Thinking we may try to go longer in the future. My sister, Laura, and her son Cameron flew in from Atlanta. Neither of my brothers were able to make it but Brian's girlfriend, Mandy, and her son Grant came. We stayed at the Phoenix West in Orange Beach and were thoroughly impressed. The lazy river, pool, and water slide were great entertainment in addition to the beach.

Also, we got some big news while we were at the beach. My oldest brother, Darrell, who has never been married, proposed to his girlfriend last week. We are so excited for them!! They are getting married next spring.

Enjoy the pics!

Laura and Mom laying at the beach

LG enjoying a pb and j for lunch
Jake, Cameron, Grant, and Landry Grace
Sweet picture of my dad and Jake. Wish I'd gotten a picture of his white feet. They'd never seen sun!!
The water slide at our condo. LG was able to ride down with another person and took full advantage.
Big Jake sliding down!
We had some really big waves on Day 2 at the beach. I loved their reactions!!
And if we ran through the waves once, we did it a thousand times!! She loved it.
Loving the waves.
Jake and Grant on their skim/boogie boards.
We had a fun trip! I'll post cruise pictures tomorrow.

So Long Beach.....

2011-06-29T16:51:00.001-05:00

Hello cruise! We left the beach around lunch time today and drove to Baton Rouge where we are spending the night with family. Matt, GiGi, and Aunt Lou should be here shortly and we head to New Orleans tomorrow for a four night cruise to Cozumel.

The beach trip this year was by far the best it's been post-kids. They are now old enough to really enjoy the beach and waves. The company helped out tremendously as well!! My kiddos loved hanging out with Cameron and Grant. We were all sad to see them go today but are looking forward to the second leg of our vacation. Look for updates!

Jackpot!

2011-06-28T09:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had another good day at the beach! A small miracle occurred when both kids napped under the tent. Why I hadn't thought of doing this before has never occurred to me. Last night we went and took beach portraits, even though not everyone is here. It's hard to get all of my family together with work schedules and what not. We did not hire a photographer but got some good ones!

Day 1: Da Beach!

2011-06-26T17:42:00.000-05:00

There are 2 kinds of beach vacations: before kids/after kids. Totally different and never the same after kids! But today we had a milestone moment. We stayed on the beach or at the pool from 9:30 to 3.30 ish. That's huge for my kiddos and we're finally at the point where we all enjoyed our day today. My dad, who NEVER sets foot on the beach, enjoyed most of the day with us! Mainly due to the fact that Mandy brought her dad's large tailgating tent. And Landry Grace even took her nap under the tent. I even got to enjoy the sun for an hour from a beach chair....!!!! Our condo has a pretty neat pool area, complete with lazy river and waterslide that the kiddos are all taking advantage of. What a great day and hope I'm not jinxing the rest of our trip!

The (Bad) Toothfairy

2011-06-23T21:03:00.004-05:00

Tonight we thought Landry Grace was ready for the tooth fairy to come for her teeth(yes, I know this is primarily done when you loose a tooth). We got dressed and ready for bed. LG is super duper into wearing leotards and tutus. Like everyday for the past week....but I think it's pretty cute. Except Jake then wants to wear his Buzz Lightyear costume to bed as well, and that's just too hot. But we made due with his t-ball "jersey".

Back to story! Of course I have to take a picture. They were in Jake's bed as the plan was for TF to come to his room to leave "the stash". Of course Jake had generously planned to split whatever TF left...25 cents was going to be hard to split but I wasn't gonna argue since it was a well thought out plan;). Well, then reality started to set in.....

She started crying uncontrollably and was petrified that the TF would come to her room instead of Jake's....she even asked me if TF could smell the teeth, sending her to Jake's room instead of LG's. It only went downhill from here. She is so afraid of anything resembling a character. And then I couldn't resist:
She was in full tears at this point. I had to promise that I would call the tooth fairy and tell her not to come.
Thus we will not be having a visit from TF tonight. Love my baby girl.

Encouragement

2011-06-23T14:35:00.003-05:00

Mrs. Loralu posted this on her blog and I just had to share this powerful song. It's so easy to get caught up in our everyday struggles but yet this video gives encouragement. God is always there, never changing and always offering his unconditional love. Thanks for sharing Mrs. Loralu! Love love love this.

VBS

2011-06-17T14:50:00.001-05:00

My two cuties sporting their La Tech blue headed to VBS this morning. They had such a fun time this week!!

Swimming and Papaw

2011-06-17T06:56:00.002-05:00

We finished up our 2 weeks of swim lessons last Friday and today we are finishing up VBS at our church. It seems as though we've had something going on everyday since school was out. Looking forward to a down week next week before heading out on our 11 day beach/cruise/ New Orleans zoo/ aquarium trip. I'm tired just thinking about it, but it will be a lot of fun!

Daddy surprised the kids last Friday by stopping by Mrs. Linda's house to see them swim their final lesson. They were thrilled! I love seeing how excited they get when Matt shows up unexpectedly.

Landry Grace swimming with her arms. They are now loving the pool!
Mrs. Linda and Jake....she's the best!
And last weekend Matt and I took the kids to Bossier to stay with GiGi while we went with Aunt Lou to Dallas to find a van for her. On the way to GiGi's house, we stopped by Papaw's grave. This was the first time we'd taken them to the cemetery since the headstone was put in place. LG had many questions. She is my inquisitive child. Jake just sat back and took it all in.

We sure do miss him!

Lazy Summer

2011-06-08T19:59:00.005-05:00

The lazy days of summer are upon us! My children are finally at the age where we can pack up and hit the pool, be fairly independent in the water, and not stress about missing nap times. It's been a long time coming. Just another reminder on how fast time flies by. Our recent days have been filled with swim lessons and the pool. No schedules, no worries. Have we had some meltdowns added in the mix? Surely!

This was 2 weekends ago, before swim lessons, when Landry Grace was content sitting on the pool deck. And enjoying her ice cream.

We had a recent outing to Pop's Blueberry Farm in Dubach. Jake had a ball picking them but still won't eat them. :(
One of our many trips to see Mrs. Linda for swim lessons.
And no pool outing is complete without our sweet friend Kennedy. This day was a turning point for LG. She is no longer interested in the baby pool. She loves jumping in and swimming to whom ever is closest.
We celebrated Caden's 4th birthday in style last weekend.

And no trip to the pool is complete without rice krispy treats!
Jake has become a pretty efficient swimmer and is showing me his most recent trick. This is the first summer that he's not been apprehensive in the water. Lessons have helped him tremendously plus his age.
During one of her many jumps off the side of the pool, she told me to move over. She could swim the entire length of the pool herself. Love her optimism....told her she might need some help. I've never seen anyone work as hard as she does to swim, but her poor feet just sink every time. She gets through the water pretty good regardless. She must have jumped in 50 times that night. Good memories in the making.
My heart.
Great thing about the pool....= great sleepers!!

First Dance Recital

2011-06-05T20:25:00.005-05:00

What a fun week it's been. We've been busy with swim lessons this past week plus dance recital practices. Last night Landry Grace made her dance recital debut and had a blast! All year she had not been thrilled about dance at all. She cried before most classes and my mom(who took her to class all year) was really good about talking her through the tears. After this week and her dance on the big stage, she is ready for next year. She definitely soaked up all the attention and I am just glad that she had F-U-N.

I laughed with one of the mom's in LG's class as we were definitely rookies this year. People take this recital pretty seriously. Landry Grace didn't know much of what was going on and was just happy about the snacks in her bag for backstage. I do have the video of the dance from dress rehearsal night and might post it later. It's a little long and I'm well aware that if it's not your child, it might not be that interesting. With that said, their Hawaiian rock dance was precious. It was a hula dance and so cute for their age group. Enjoy the pictures.

Backstage with Charleigh and Parker

This picture isn't the clearest, but you can tell she is having so much fun!
Dancing a jig during the Hawaiian Rock performance.
Again with a little tongue action. She was concentrating hard.

And after her performance we presented her with flowers. She was so sweet!
And I have to brag on Jake. He was pretty excited about seeing his little sister on stage and did great during the entire performance. This picture was taken at 9PM and he was hungry. Didn't want you to think he suffered all night long :).
With Big Mama and Big D
With GiGi
And last but not least, with good friend Bella Grace.
Have a great week!

Screamers

2011-06-01T16:37:00.001-05:00

This is for Joanna!! Love all the screaming on day 1 of swim lessons. Fun stuff! Below is another video....

Wee Singers

2011-06-01T16:18:00.001-05:00

Jake and Landry Grace's debut choir performance from last week. Thought this was so cute!

Happenings

2011-05-31T13:13:00.010-05:00

We've had a few happenings this past week that I haven't posted about so here goes. If you follow this blog, then you may have already seen the swimming lesson video from below. I'm new to the video posting as it took me a while to learn which way was fastest to upload to the internet. My new camera(Canon Rebel Ti 2) can video record and it is great! I haven't recorded much on it until recently. It certainly beats having to switch back and forth from a camera and video recorder. The fastest way seems to be You Tube.

Back to the swimming lessons. I also got some footage of all the kids screaming yesterday. Day 1 is the hardest for all kids as a lot of them scream the whole time. It was pretty comical. Day 3 usually gets better and by day 10 they are fine. LG did much better today and told my mom "she did excellent!". A trip to Pizza Inn is in the works for her efforts.

Jake had his last t-ball game last week. I don't have any still shots from the game, but he was fired up about the pizza and trophy afterwards.

One last huddle. It was a fun year!
And if you only KNEW what I went through to get this picture.....finally, I told them they could "spank me" and I got this. Yeah, it was totally worth it!
SO last Friday I decided to take the kids to the Alexandria zoo with my mom in tow. Let me preface this by saying that the vehicle I drive is pretty old(over 10 years...) but it's been paid for and I'm happy with it. The gas gauge, however, has been acting up lately and when I thought I still had 3/4's of a tank left...I was wrong:(. Perhaps I should have remembered that it was on empty, but I live 3 miles from where I work and just don't have to fill up that often. So about an hour into our 2 hour trip, we ran out of gas on the side of the road. BUMMER. 2 hours later roadside assistance gets there and gases us up. By this time my mom needed to get back to Ruston. This went over like a lead balloon, but after promises of a pet fish, we were good to go. We'll make another trip after swim lessons are over.

Landry Grace thought this detour was real fun at first!
Mom even found some sidewalk chalk in my car and got game of hopscotch going. We were very careful with them on the road. At this point, containing them in the car was no longer an option.

And here they are eating treats from LG's new Easy Bake oven. She didn't want a fish and chose this instead.

Jake's new pets: Mr. Alligator and Mr. Monster. Mr. Monster has already passed:/....

And last Friday my brother Brian flew in from Denver to see his girlfriend, Mandy. We got a chance to hang out with them by the pool on Saturday and then had them over for crawfish.

Below is LG is all her tooth-less glory:). We go to see Dr. Ward next week about getting replacements. My kids LOVE Miss Mandy!! She has such a sweet heart.
The whole crew eating some crawfish.
Tomorrow we are getting geared up for Landry Grace's dance recital. She has her first practice in Monroe on the "big stage" and is pretty excited about it. I am finding that she talks more and more about the recital everyday. Her performance is Saturday. This should be fun!!

Day 1 Swiming Lessons

2011-05-30T18:00:00.000-05:00

Katie Caroline Ward

2011-05-29T15:17:00.008-05:00

The church sermon this morning spoke of the Beatitudes. It certainly spoke to my heart because yesterday, Katie Caroline(she suffered from complications of Crohn's) went to be with Jesus. She was doing better but apparently suffered a major stroke yesterday morning. Many many of us are absolutely heartbroken for Toni, Will, and big sister Lainey and their extended families. Please keep this family in your prayers.

Summertime!

2011-05-24T16:16:00.000-05:00

Jake is super excited about all the swimming we plan on doing this summer. LG could care less as she hasn't been in the pool yet and we've made 3 trips. Hope this changes on Monday when we start swimming lessons. Jake went through this last year so I'm thinking hers is a phase that'll pass.

Please disregard my extreme country accent. Consider yourself culturified today( and no, that isn't a word but it is now)!

TEARS!

2011-05-23T21:38:00.003-05:00

I am adding some pictures from the weekend in this post, but my post title comes from our Spring Fling at WMS tonight. Jake and Landry Grace's school has loved them, taught them, and disciplined them for the past 9 months. I have an enormous amount of gratitude to each and every teacher and aide at the school. It was emotional moment tonight as Jake has come so far this year thanks to Mrs. Renee and Ms. Kelsey. They mean the world to me. I feel the same way about Landry Grace's teacher, Mrs. April, as well.

Sunday morning before church. Can you tell Daddy is thrilled?
After their singing debut in church with their choir teacher, Mrs. Amy. She is truly a special person and friend.
Darn it! These are all mixed up. The picture below should have been first. You get the idea how quick we have to be in getting these family photos. Especially when you're children are afraid they are going to miss something on the playground.
Posing for a picture with some friends. So proud of him for his achievements this year.
Landry and her classmates just before their singing began. Just love her!
The beloved Ms. Cindy!
Jake and our sweet sweet sweet Mrs. Renee. There is no other!!!
With her teacher, Ms. April
What a wonderful year it has been. Praying and seeking guidance for what next year has in store. Summer is almost here!

Events and Parties

2011-05-21T16:10:00.004-05:00

We continue to have activities going on and I am just doing my job by posting some of our outings this week. Jake had his next to last game on Thursday and continues to enjoy t-ball. As he was rounding second and headed to third, the ball his teammate hit rolled right in front of him. Seeing this, he stopped and tried to field the ball. I got a good laugh out of it, but also know that his instinct kicked in to try and" get that ball".

Landry Grace's end of the year party was Friday at a classmate's house. She had a great time playing with her friends. We look forward to another year of Montessori next year.
Landry Grace in all her glory. She has certainly been going through a tough stage here lately with a "her way or no way" attitude. Hoping it doesn't stick around long.....
This picture was out of focus, but she had a blast sliding down the jumpee with her classmates and Ms. Cindy.
I caught some cute pictures at an Idea Place birthday party for one of Jake's classmates. Here they were doing the rocket experiment with Alkaseltzer tablets. The film containers shoot up pretty high and Jake thought this was great. We've been to a couple of parties here and they are fun. There aren't many options in Ruston for parties.
The reaction from Jake and Tullie. Love this, even though it's out of focus.
Jake had a great time. Landry Grace was scared to death. She also was not fond of the planetarium, our next stop. It was pitch dark and she was ready to G.O.
Ashley and sweet Madeline. We are going to miss some sweet families from Jake's class next year!
Jack and Jake getting ready to watch the planetarium show. Only 2 more days left with students and then we are done Thursday at lunch. So cannot wait to enjoy some downtime with my growing children.

Sweetness

2011-05-18T12:27:00.000-05:00

*This is just a photo from my phone of the kids most recent picture. Not a scan and I don't intend to reproduce. Barnes took this picture during Easter. I thought it turned out great but oh my goodness, Jake looks like a little man in it. So sad!!

Ahhh.....

2011-05-17T20:07:00.003-05:00

The afternoons in our household can sometimes be filled with tears and screaming on who is sharing and who is not. I have one child who would live in front of the TV if we let him and one child who could care less about TV. So after refusing to turn on the tube this afternoon, and after the tears had been shed, I found them totally entertaining themselves.....and not arguing. It was a rare moment:) and I had to brag a little. I'm so proud of the little people they are becoming.

Landry Grace "reading" to Jake.
Playing in the play room. *These pictures were not staged, I promise!

Countdown!

2011-05-15T17:35:00.005-05:00

The countdown is on....to SUMMER! This is what I love about being a teacher! No schedules, plenty of free time, and of course vacations. This summer we have our annual beach trip planned. The only downfall is that Matt won't be going so that he can save his vacation days for our Disney trip in the fall. I say that's a fair trade. We are also going on a cruise to Cozumel with Matt's mom and aunt. This should be interesting with the kids, but from what we have looked at, there is plenty of stuff for them to do on board. If anyone has taken a cruise with children, please give us some tips!

Aside from summer plans, we have been busy with kids activities, Sunday school parties, girls night out, and so forth. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

Landry Grace wore her outfit of choice to Jake's game Friday night. Can you tell she is thrilled? She was in rare form that night, petty skirt and a gatorade mustache to go with it.

Family pose after the game. Jake is loving t-ball and I think Matt has had a good time being his coach. It's safe to say we will probably be doing t-ball next year too even though he has the option to do pitching machine.
I filled up the fire pit in our backyard with sand and the kids have enjoyed playing in it.
I found this picture in my junior high year book. Year:1993 The little girl sitting on the table is my team teacher year. I am the one in the middle with a bottles worth of hairspray on my bangs. Fun stuff!
And last Thursday we had a silent auction to benefit the Wildflower Montessori school in which Jake and Landry Grace attend. They only have this auction every other year and I must say that the auction was quite impressive. Many people came together to put on this event. Jake's class project was the bookcase you see below. All of his classmates put their artwork together and it turned out great. I left the auction early for a girl's night and Matt got in a bidding war with a friend of mine over this item. Let's just say we made a very generous donation to WMS this year! But it was for a good cause. In 2 years we hope to buy Landry Grace's class project.
This is also Mrs. Renee's(Jake's teacher) last year to teach. She is so wonderful and will be missed in the classroom by many. We have enrolled Jake in her art camp this summer and the theme his class will be working on is Eric Carle books( the Hungry Caterpillar and the Very Angry Ladybug are 2 of his books). He should have a lot of fun.

Privilege

2011-05-08T20:30:00.005-05:00

Wishing all of you who are mothers or plan to become mothers or are expectant mothers a very Happy Mother's Day. Also, I am thinking and praying for those of you who have lost a baby and maybe are trying to have another. I have accomplished a few things in my lifetime, but nothing compares to being a mom. I can honestly remember NO ONE telling me just how hard a newborn would be. What an important, life changing role in every way. I can remember some dark days when I found out I was pregnant again and Jake was 4 months old. Couldn't talk to many people about that because it would look as though I was ungrateful for a new life growing inside of me. There were more dark days with a newborn and 12 month old. Days where I was barely treading above water.

Oh Lord, how you knew all along what YOU were doing. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for these blessings. The 2 most precious gifts from above. Thank you Lord for grace, for loving me on days that I probably don't deserve it. Thank you for all of those "I love you too, Mama" that I hear on a regular basis. Thank you for the caring words that they are already learning. The eyes that see everything, soaking it all up. May I strive to be the best mother that I can be. I pray that they learn righteous ways and learn more than anything to be little servants for God's kingdom. Yes, we fall short on most days but we are striving to so our very best.

And thank you to my mama, who sometimes had to make hard decisions for me when I was younger. For times when I wasn't grateful, I am sorry. So many life lessons I did not learn until I became a mother myself. All the sacrifices. Thank you, Mom, for that! I am so blessed to have my parents so close by. They help our family so much.

Below are some of my sweetest shots lately. I love my pictures. But I love my babies and husband so much more. Thank you thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being a mother and parent. And thank you for grace when I fall short.

Teeth Are Overrated

2011-05-06T14:14:00.001-05:00

We had to be in south Shreveport at 7:30 this morning. We left the hospital at 1:30. It's been a long day but once again Landry Grace proved to be a tough cookie. The dentist had to pull 2 teeth, one being a top center tooth, did 3 root canals, and capped 6 teeth. Dr. Wallace said we might not want to replace the missing teeth with fake ones, but I gently told her that yes, we would:). Hey, we've gone without hair so I consider this missing teeth stuff to bring us somewhat "full circle". But she is otherwise fine. Thank you for your sweet comments on the previous post. I really appreciate your prayers!

Big Day.....

2011-05-05T20:40:00.002-05:00

Landry Grace's big day for her teeth capping procedure is tomorrow bright and early in Shreveport. Please say a small prayer that she will be fine with the anesthetic and come out of it OK. Jake has already had 3 pretty major surgeries and did fine, but I always have that fear.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand. Isaiah 41:10

Blessing and Priorities

2011-05-04T19:33:00.002-05:00

So here lately I have had a hard time getting motivated about blogging our family fun while there are others I know who are struggling. Yes, I have done it anyway, but tonight I want to focus on those who are on the mend and those who are in critical condition.

The first sweet little girl(hopefully you've been following Mandy's blog already) and about Harper, 5, who has has a terrible bout of pneumonia. Mandy is an incredible writer and I would not do her story justice. So please hop on over and take a look, but while you are there, please lift this sweet family up to our Lord. They still need your prayers as Harper is on her way to a full recovery. She is on Landry Grace's class at school. This has been a prayerful learning experience for LG as she has been asking to pray for Harper. Hopefully we have taught her a little more about what prayer is and can be. We love you Harper(and Cauley family!).

The next little girl is Katie Caroline,6. She lives in Benton and I know her mom, Toni, from a few Bible studies we did together when we lived there. She has been battling the diagnosis of Chrome's disease and now has vasculitis. She has been in and out of Dallas Children's for a good month now and is currently in the ICU, suffering from multiple seizures and 4 strokes, I believe. There are so many people praying for her as she tries to regain consciousness. Please please please remember these families in your prayers tonight.
There are so many things that we take for granted. Trying to remember that all the time.

Easter and More

2011-04-28T18:03:00.007-05:00

This is somewhat of a hodgepodge post so forgive me in advance. We had a low key Easter with a few egg hunts and outings with friends. Easter Sunday we boiled shrimp after church with my parents and Matt's mom, aunt, and brother. We are just blessed with what we have. Man, I can just tear up thinking about what we have to be thankful for. Too often, we get caught up in the American way of "bigger and better". I've just been humbled these past couple of weeks. Just be thankful for your blessings, be it big or small. Just some food for thought, that's all!

We let Jake and Landry Grace fall asleep together for the first time last week. They were thrilled about doing this. Little things.

Landry Grace sporting the old school dress with her name cross-stitched on the front. Pretty sure Mom had the exact same dress for me in the 80's.
Landry Grace and Jake before their school Easter egg hunts. Matt went with Jake to his and I took LG to hers.
The Thursday before Easter I met up with some of my high school classmates. Actually, we all go back to elementary school together. We met up at Raw and talked for 3 hours. Could've talked more but bedtime was calling. What a fun evening!
Jake's current OBSESSION is with caterpillars. He found this one at a birthday party last week and named it "Rockstar".
She is ALL girl. Rocking the heels at the pool the entire time. She had little interest in getting in. The water is still a little chilly for her.
Easter morning. I hate that we didn't take more pictures. This is my all-time favorite dress of Landry Graces'. She wore it last year as well. The lady that makes these dresses for the Moppett Shop in Shreveport is retiring this year. I am so sad:(. She also made the blue one in the picture above.
Family pic:

T-ball!

2011-04-27T16:49:00.000-05:00

Jake's first t-ball game was last night. He had a great time despite the game being called due to lightening. His entire team looked so cute on the field with their little uniforms on!! My friend Melody had a matching shirt made for her little girl so I borrowed the idea for Landry Grace. It might be a little much but I thought the kiddos looked pretty cute last night. Of course my camera battery died, so these pics are from my phone. Mom of the Year award...fun times!!

Happy Easter

2011-04-23T21:05:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd send a small update from our weekend thus far. It's been great hanging out with my babies, going to egg hunts, and even taking our first dip of the year in a pool. We ended tonight by reading about the empty tomb with hopes that they will carry with them the MOST important message from this Easter season. Wishing you a Happy Easter!

Sunday's Coming

2011-04-22T10:31:00.001-05:00

Rev. Rolly said, "You can't get to Sunday without Friday". Thought I would share this video in remembrance.

Not a Fan....

2011-04-20T14:04:00.003-05:00

I'll have a little more to post from today's egg hunt with Landry Grace's class at school. It was held at the Aswell's farm in Choudrant. This is an actual farm! There were all kinds of animals including a buffalo. Well, these pigs scared my sweet baby girl to death. They would come out of nowhere running pretty fast. You can see in the second picture her face of horror and then with sweet Ms. Cindy trying to comfort her. She is not a fan. These pics made me smile...had to share!

Little Bit of Everything!

2011-04-19T20:08:00.008-05:00

We've been up to a good bit lately, so I thought I'd give you a little update. First off with LG's new toy that she "earned" last week. I came across an "old school toy" at Toy Fair: the Snoppy sno cone machine. They love it and ask to make one every evening.

Next, if you drive past our house in the afternoon/evening time, we are more than likely to be in the front yard doing this. Seriously. Jake loves hitting the ball, working on throwing, etc. And I am thoroughly enjoying this as well. I even helped out at t-ball practice last night and managed not to get hit with the ball. But Jake managed to hit the only girl on our team with a ball. Big accident. :(
I have finished the flower beds and am so proud of them! My first purple flower bloomed on one of the verbena plants yesterday. So proud! Wish I would have taken a before picture. There was a lot of digging up and moving around of plants.
Last year I moved about 4 hydrangea plants from the back yard to the side here. I didn't know if they would make it, but this year they all look fantastic. Again, I am so excited to see the plants getting ready to bloom.
Last Friday we headed up to Railroad Park for Dinner and a Movie. This was a community function put on by the Junior Auxilary of Ruston(think Junior League for those of you not familiar). They showed Princess and the Frog. The kids didn't sit down for the movie but had a great time with all of their friends. I let them bring treats in their lunch boxes. This turned out to be a pretty good idea! And a big THANKS to my mom for tagging along with us. Matt was umpiring baseball that night and could not go. It always helps to have an extra hand.
And last but not least, Katie called me on Friday to see if Matt and I wanted to check out the Kenny Chesney concert in Dallas with them Saturday evening. Uncle Kracker, Billy Currington, and the Zac Brown Band were there as well. In addition to that, the concert was at the new Cowboy Stadium. We were in! And we were able to enjoy food and drinks before and during the concert at the CTB suite inside the stadium. We had a BLAST!! Thanks again Katie and Lance! And to my mother-in-law for taking care of the babies short notice so we could get away for some alone time. We are very blessed to have caring grandparents!

Easter Egg hunts tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Smiles

2011-04-12T14:00:00.000-05:00

I was going through the many photos on my phone and reminiscing of the laughs I've had with Jake and Landry Grace. Tears can easily flow when I think of how fast the years are going and too soon Jake will be in kindergarten. I love them both so much that my heart aches. Since I'm sending this from my phone, I can't put captions under each picture. Instead I'll let you know what each one is and why it makes me smile:)! 1)Jake taking a picture of LG when we were out shopping one day. They were in the stroller taking turns snapping pictures. 2) with the Hall kiddos at Lincoln Parish Park last spring looking for fish off the pier. Simple things. 3) my 3 loves sporting their cowboy boots at the Tech ag auction last year. 4) at the beach last year, Jake came in and was so proud he'd put his underwear on by himself.... And 5) was taken last week. They are enjoying a popsicle after school in the driveway. Life is NOT perfect, but I love my sweet family!

Spring has Sprung!

2011-04-10T20:02:00.002-05:00

Jake finished up his first soccer season this weekend. Overall, I think he loved it. I love these sweet pictures. He is grinning from ear to ear. T-ball season cranks up this week as we have our first practice tomorrow evening. Matt is coaching Jake's team and thinks it's pretty neat that his daddy is his coach. We are looking forward to it!

Running through the parent's tunnel. They love this!
Jake with Coach Burnett
Jake and his teammates.
Go MUDSHARKS!
And as I was cleaning out LG's dance bag tonight, I noticed her class picture was in there. She is sitting in the teacher's lap. My scanner isn't working so I just took a picture from my camera. Aren't they all just precious!!?

That's all for now! Hope you have a great week!

Teammates

2011-04-06T17:38:00.000-05:00

My Wednesday morning run normally consists of 10 miles through the hills of Ruston. Here lately I've been dreading this morning run a lot because I'm not really training for anything and 10 miles is a long way.... But this morning my old high school teammate Jon joined us and it was a lot of fun catching up with him. Jon is a Navy Seal now and, along with his wife Carrie, are moving cross country from the San Diego area to Tampa and stopped in Ruston along the way. We had a lot of laughs this morning reminiscing about "the good ole days" and what have you. I think we both agree that the life lessons learned through our sport of choice in high school has helped us tremendously in all aspects of our life. Of course we had a great coach but the entire cross country team was another family for me. Jon is also a 3:17 marathoner who hopes to one day qualify for the Boston marathon. Thanks for a great run, Jon!! Above is a picture from last May. Thought I'd share it now...

Dallas

2011-04-01T21:24:00.004-05:00

We made it back into town today after 2 nights in Dallas. It was a lot of fun, but can be a challenge with a 3 and 4 year old. They did great overall and it is so fun that we can now take them on trips and see their enjoyment in what they are doing. Jake and Landry Grace pretty much stayed in the wave pool at GWL. They loved jumping the waves and Jake just floated out in the middle of the wave pool with no fear(but did have a life jacket on). I am hopeful that they will love the ocean this summer. In years past we have gone to the beach and stayed at the pool. And that was fine!

Landry Grace doing her dancing! She is a hoot in "real life" with all of her hopping up and down.
Posing for a brief moment.
A stranger took this shot and I thought it was great! It had a shadow on it so I just turned it to black and white. Problem solved.
We thought Landry Grace would L-O-V-E American Girl since she loves her Bitty Baby so much....but we were W-R-O-N-G! It could have been the fact that she was on a 15 minute nap that day and we went at 5:15 in the evening. She really was not into the dolls or outfits. I was not going to push her getting an outfit for baby if she didn't want to, I know there are many years ahead.
Before we went in. And guess who was waaaaay more into the dolls: Jake Tyler. He was thrilled that the waiter brought him over a doll to sit with during dinner. Mom and I couldn't stop giggling. And no, I have no worries in the world about this. LG is just as interested in pirates and such when Jake is playing with them. Oh but we had some good laughs.
I didn't plan to buy a stroller but she was set on it. So I gave in and got her the stroller. It has not left her side and she has taken it everywhere we've gone in the past 24 hours.
I caught this last night as they were in a discussion on how to share their yogurt. My children can fight like cats and dogs, but man they truly are best friends. I love to see them connect in different ways and levels. Sure it's been a tough road and will continue to be, but I love that they have each other. I pray so hard that they will be the very best of friends throughout their lifetime.
GiGi just got back from Chicago. Here they are sporting their new shirts she bought for them. Thanks GiGi!

Matt has been gone since last Friday on a business trip to Las Vegas. All three of us have missed him greatly and are glad that he is almost home. We have a full day tomorrow with soccer, Tech's Spring Game, and track meet. Have a great weekend!

GWL

2011-03-31T09:23:00.000-05:00

We are having a lot of fun at Great Wolf Lodge! Jake continues to surprise me with his continued love of the water. Last year he was terrified of it and yesterday he was fearless in the wave pool. Landry Grace has been a little more reserved this trip and hasn't ridden a single water slide but she loved the wave pool as well.

Camping Adventures

2011-03-29T17:12:00.005-05:00

Well, we are back from our camping adventure at Lincoln Parish Park. To say the kids had fun is an understatement! It did get a little cold last night but the temps were in the 50's. My friend Sharon brought her RV out there so it was nice to have a fridge, bathrooms, place to cook food, etc. Not to mention the company! Here are the pics and most of them speak for themselves on the amount of fun they had.

Headed down to the pond to fish with crickets. Just before this picture, Jake accidentally spilt the crickets and we managed to catch most of them. That was pretty much the only meltdown of the night.
Headed down to the pond.
The whole gang: Thomas, Hank, Emma, Camille, Landry Grace, Hilton, and Jake.
Feeding the ducks that came by our campsite for a snack.
Can we say CUTE? I love this sweet picture!
Striking a pose down by the pond. They ended up catching up a lot of fish over the course of 24 hours. Jake was loving this.
The ducks were everywhere!
Sharon was showing my mom how to make her infamous homemade salsa.
Hilton with his fish and Landry Grace not wanting to cooperate.
Landry Grace and Camille loving with Mr. LeeJay(Sharon's husband)
Our meal that night consisted of pork tenderloin, hash brown casserole, salad, and bread.
Landry Grace had a ball with Larkin and Hank.
Roasting marshmallows for the smores.
I really thought Landry Grace was going to turn into a cheese ball....no nap yesterday and this was at 8:45 last night. She was beyond exhausted and still asking for these silly cheese balls. Needless to day once her head hit the pillow she did not roll over until 7:30 this morning. We invested in some sleeping bags for the kiddos and I think that helped them not to get too cold.
And of course the next morning we ended the trip with blueberry pancakes.

We hung out at the park until noon and after baths and lunch, all of us took some much needed naps. I finally had to wake LG up at 4:45. Hoping she goes to sleep tonight as we have a big day tomorrow. It's supposed to warm up Thursday and Friday and we are hoping so!

Prayer

2011-03-27T15:53:00.002-05:00

I typically post the same old news day in and day out. I'm sure to most of you it is very boring. But I do want to share with you something that I deem very important. My sister, Laura, who lives in Atlanta lost her job several weeks ago. She is a single mother and over the course of the last 5 years has not had a steady job until this past job. So I asked my Sunday school class to please pray for her, that she would find something soon.

Side note: Our Sunday school teacher is Nick Brown. His father was in town last weekend and came to church that morning with the Brown family. He was there that morning in Sunday school.

Back to story. Nick was talking about modern day miracles and why we do not see them as much in our society. Nick's dad broke in and started talking about prayer and how we need to get on our knees daily to pray. He then proceeded to say that he was going to pray daily for "Suzanne's sister", that she would find a job and that she will find a job and that I will hear from her and so forth. It took me a second to figure out he was actually talking abut me(hey, I'm a little slow sometimes). I was so moved that he A) knew my name and B) that he would take the time to pray for my sister. I told him this after Sunday school.

I got this e-mail on Friday:

Hi Laura,

Please find the attached documents for the information you need for your scheduled interview on Tuesday 3/29/11. Please arrive a few minutes early as the lobby can get congested with visitors and we will need a few minutes to get you to your interview.

Attached are also directions, please be sure to use these directions and do NOT use mapquest or any GPS locator as they will NOT take you to the proper address. Also attached is an application to fill out and bring with you to your interview to give to Cindy Guinn.

Please reply to this email so I know you received it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Amy

Amy Harwell

Coordinator, Talent Acquisition

The Home Depot | 2455 Paces Ferry Road, D2 | Atlanta, GA 30339

WOW. Please help me if you will to pray for her on Tuesday. I am so humbled and wanted to share this with you.

Spring??

2011-03-27T14:38:00.004-05:00

Brrr! What happened to our Springtime temps?! We've had an eventful weekend but are skipping our camping plans tonight due to the chilly (for us) weather. Not thinking we will last very long in the tent in 40 degree weather. But I am happy to report that the kids slept until 7 o'clock Friday morning in the tent at my parent's house.

Yesterday morning we had another soccer game, this one at 9am. This might not sound early for those of us who are parents, but getting 3 people ready by myself and out to the soccer fields by 8:45 can prove to be challenging. Only 2 things were forgot: Jake's soccer ball and breakfast. Please note that I did not skip breakfast but did forget to feed my kids(man I wish I could forget to eat). Another vote for Mom of the Year, please. So they ate chocolate chip cookies at the game and McDonald's afterwards.....but they are still alive and kicking!

Please note in the above picture that I do attempt to brush Jake's hair everyday. And no, you cannot tell.

My mom gets so tickled watching Jake play soccer. He is the youngest kid out there and absolutely has NO clue what is going on. It really is quite hilarious. You can kinda tell by looking at him. But DO NOT score a goal while he is goalie. He will get very upset at that!
And this is what he would rather be doing at the game: Rock collecting. Nice! Matt was a very competitive child, I was not. I couldn't have cared LESS. In junior high the bug got me. Hoping he will be a good mix(competitive-wise) between the 2 of us.

After soccer I met up with Sharon for some flower buying 101. Not too many friends will give up their Saturday afternoon to work in your flower bed. Guess I got lucky as Sharon helped me move, plant, and deweed. So wish I would have taken before and after pictures. Working in my yard has become a new hobby for me. I love it!
Sweet Emma spent last night with us and went with us to church as well this morning. She is such a good helper and the kids love her!
Yay for some SPRING BREAK!

Birthdays and Camping

2011-03-24T20:38:00.003-05:00

We celebrated Aunt Lou's birthday tonight at Ralph and Kacco's in Bossier. Matt is really picking some great cakes and tonight brought a hamburger and french fries for the celebration. From here on out, we will be using Albritton's Bakery in West Monroe. They are super reasonable(this cake was $25) and the cakes taste great. The kids were more than excited about the cake, as I am sure you can imagine!

Aunt Lou with her great niece and nephew.
Uncle Mark, GiGi, Matt with the babies.
Landry Grace and Jake are staying with my parent's tonight so that I can drive Matt to the airport in the morning. Mom decided to do a trial run on the camping and they are in the backyard tonight. Both of them were so excited when I told them they were camping out.
Landry Grace on her blow-up mattress.
Jake had his own as well.
And a quick pose on Big Mama's bed before I left.
It was pitch black when I was leaving and this is the best I could get. Sweet Bandit was guarding the tent and they were reading a Bible story when I left. I'll be interested to see if they make it all night!!

Spring Break Fun!

2011-03-23T10:19:00.000-05:00

We'll do a little traveling. Play in some water. Dine with LG's doll. And try our hand at camping. Yay for a break!

So as you can see we have a few fun things planned during Spring Break next week. I'm so looking forward to a break from our daily schedules and to spending time with Jake and Landry Grace!

Trooper

2011-03-17T21:03:00.003-05:00

Here are my 2 sweet babies before we left the house this A.M. We dropped our leprechaun off at school and took Landry Grace over to Shreveport for a consult with the pediatric dentist.

She was an absolute trooper....I think second born children are a little tougher all the way around; Or maybe it is my little Landry Grace! We ended up waiting for a little while to see the dentist. When we finally did see her we found out that she(the dentist) doesn't have the capability to do procedures in the hospital anymore. And it was just out of the question having her go to that office 3-4 times to put one cap on at a time, etc. LG really needed to be put under and cap all the teeth at once.....So luckily we were referred to ANOTHER dentist in which Matt knew the office manager and we got an appointment immediately. So off to the other dentist we went and she was wonderful. We aren't quite sure all of the extensive work that will need to be done on her teeth until she is sedated and the doctor can take a good look, but her procedure will be done May 6.

After all of this we celebrated at my favorite place, Jason's Deli! I'd brought along sprinkles to put on the ice cream as incentive for Landry Grace and it worked. She was such a trooper all morning. Needless to say she was thrilled to get her bowl of ice cream.

Poor brother. I told him we'd be back to get him right after lunch but we didn't make it back to Ruston in time. His teacher called me around noon saying that he was insisting I was coming:(. Note to self: in the future do not make promises you cannot keep! But he got a new pair of tennis shoes and when we picked him up he was fine!!

Below is a picture of Jake and Madeline. They are classmates at Montessori and we ran into them yesterday at the Twisted Cow. My children love love love this place. I finally wised up and allowed them only one topping. Problem solved! Much less hassle.....another note!
Hope you are having a great week! I had a last minute offer to attend the Life Choices fundraiser tonight in Ruston to hear Pam Tebow (Tim Tebow's mother) speak. If you haven't heard her testimony, Google her. It's well worth your time. I don't think it was an accident that I attended. God has really been speaking to my heart these days. I'm praying praying about some things. What an awesome God we serve.